J-List loves working with former JAV actress and super popular cosplayer and YouTuber Kaho Shibuya, and we’ve done many interesting projects together with her over the years, from helping promote our fun otaku masks for social distancing and selling her new photobook Fun + Lingerie = Fungerie, which you can get with a custom autograph by Kaho-chan herself! And now we’ve got a detailed interview with Kaho Shibuya, which will answer any nagging questions you’ve had about the JAV world!
Kaho Shibuya Reveals the Secrets of the JAV Industry!
Thanks for agreeing to do this interview, Kaho! I’ve loved having you at the J-List booth at Anime Expo, and I know the hundreds of fans who got to meet you there were happy, too.
Appreciate you having me here. Yeah, I really miss conventions. Hopefully, when we can feel safe enough traveling internationally, I get to meet my fans at events like AX again.
During quarantine, I started streaming on Twitch to have a place to interact with people whom I could’ve met at cons if there were any post-COVID.
That’s great. Yes, we all need to feel like we’re interacting with people in a meaningful way.
You’ve had an amazing career, working as a journalist and sports writer before debuting in the AV world, then doing lots of things after you retired, becoming a writer and cosplayer, and YouTuber. Can you tell us what drew you to the AV industry?
Honestly, I didn’t willingly join JAV; I was a pushover, being afraid to refuse their offer since the industry was stereotypically known to have a strong connection with yakuza. But eventually, I considered the situation as an opportunity to learn about the unknown world of adult entertainment in Japan. Being a former journalist, I really enjoyed peeking behind all the mosaics and fantasies.
You’re a great motivation for many Japanese because you’re dedicated to learning English, and have a perfect score on the TOEIC English test and level 1 of the STEP test, the hardest test of English for Japanese people. How did you realize this dream of mastering English?
As a non-native speaker without any bilingual background like living in foreign countries or growing up with at least one English-speaking parent, I simply needed proof for my skills that I acquired mainly from books and TV shows. That’s why I became tenacious about getting high scores on those tests. I want people to feel comfortable with using English to me.
You’ve written an interesting book called AVについて女子が知っておくべきすべてのこと or Everything Females Should Know About AV Before Entering the Industry. It’s filled with all the details that outsiders wouldn’t know, like the legal status of shooting adult films, the mechanics of how shooting works (including how performers must sign a 出演承諾書 or official permission form before beginning), and so on. Can you go over the details, and the legal frameworks in place that protect performers as well as AV studios, and also ensure that everyone is of legal age to perform?
Thank you for reading my first printed book. I wrote everything from scratch after the JAV retirement, with actual data, with tables and charts and quotes, not just with my memories. These days, the industry only hires women above 20, the legal age of full adulthood in Japan, so that their parents cannot barge in against the kids’ wills [in the case of 18- or 19-year old actresses]. There used to be hardly any contracts, but ever since the “forced-into-JAV” claims went viral and some people in the business like managers, directors, and CEO of AV company got arrested for that, piles of paperwork have been required to make sure it is consensual. It takes a lot more time now to process everything, but rules have become clearer and less grey about performers’ legal commitments.
In your book, you mention the main difference between AV actresses, ones who are “scouted” in public vs. girls who apply for work at an AV talent agency on their own. I once visited a JAV studio that had no staff around and noticed a huge stack of official AV industry resumes (履歴書) by hundreds of girls wanting to become actresses. Why do think there are so many girls drawn to this kind of work?
Let’s say young women in need of money consider the option of doing adult work. Then AV sounds safer than brothels, for men they get physical with them have to go through with STD tests and show proper IDs. It is also a form of entertainment as in creating movies, not just a customer service job. I personally don’t have an experience of working in red-light districts, but girls who have tell me it’s more about hospitality, while JAV acting is like being an idol or “talent” who performs on TV. That mentality is the key to figuring out why some even “aspire” to become AV stars. They can feel a sense of achievement if become famous, albeit the job itself is generally looked down upon.
Your book describes an industry that’s governed by many formal rules and seems very organized and self-regulated. In general, what are some things that happen in the AV world that we can’t see captured by the camera?
Since JAV performers have to wear “pixel panties” according to Japanese law (all those uncensored JAVs are illegal and some got jailed from making/appearing in them), actresses are often “faking it” behind those pixelizations. Fake cum, cock, squirt, even insertion, and the mechanics of how these are created can be quite impressive.
All these gimmicks have to be kept secret when you’re still in the industry. If my book was more for JAV fans and hence men, I might have refrained from stating some facts to avoid destroying their dreams. But since the book was oriented towards women and how they should be educated about JAV before joining, I could focus on the reality.
I learned a lot from your book, including that JAV studios have the legal right to use the image and video of a given actress for 5 ½ years, and how actresses who choose to allow nakadashi scenes are supposed to go see the doctor and obtain prescriptions for the Pill themselves.
Regarding their preparation for creampie shoot, in my book I actually mentioned a common habit of agencies passing contraceptive pills to actresses, because girls didn’t have time to see a doctor and it made things easier for them. The point of unraveling such ugly truth is to let them notice “Hmm, what we’re doing might be against the law or get frowned upon by society.” That way, the industry can make themselves better and less shady.
Lately, real creampie itself has been banned by most major AV makers, because it’s too physically demanding to women. The industry is finding a middle ground between customer’s wants and what they can ask actors to do.
I write reviews of JAV photobooks for the J-List blog, and I’ve found J-List’s customers like it when I research the background of the actresses and where they’re from, along with why they decided to enter JAV. As you mention in the book, a lot of these girls are from rural cities. Why do you think this is?
It’s natural to hide your JAV career from your friends and family back home. When they’re geographically away from such communities, they must feel safer to start a secret new life. I heard a lot of cases from actresses that their parents either have no idea what they’re doing or they don’t care if their parents find out because “they can’t really do anything about it, we live far apart.”
In my case, as a born and bred Tokyoite, dealing with family has been tough. My mother dragged me to a mental clinic, saying “You must be crazy for appearing in JAV! Our family name is ruined so you must quit and live in the countryside or a foreign country. Then no one will find out about you!” I believe that’s rather a normal reaction coming from a well-off city dweller. If kids are away from their parents and live on their own, maybe even supporting their families financially, the family members can’t force them to change their jobs.
Another point you touch on in the book is the delicacy of being in the industry if you have a “private” partner in the real world. How does this generally work with AV actresses having boyfriends or even husbands outside of “work”?
To my surprise, many of them were in relationships, and I could only assume it must be difficult since their job description technically involves cheating on their partners. They consider porn shoot as work, but their boyfriend or spouse doesn’t feel the same way. Some actresses were even asked “It’s unfair that you get all the fun sex. Can you invite another actress for a threesome with me?”
I guess porn actresses in general are targets of freeloaders, because they tend to make more money and rather open to kinky sex than regular girls. Men with weird fetishes besides without a penny would love to be with those girls, I bet.
How would Kaho Shibuya say the industry has changed over the past decade or so?
I was in the industry for less than 4 years, so I only have a full grasp of that time, but even during that time, things have enormously changed; it used to be that only male performers needed to go through STD tests for regular shoots, meaning with condoms, but now even actresses have to get tested regularly.
It was quite amusing to watch Japan approve Viagra for sale almost immediately when it appeared, after taking decades to allow general distribution the Pill for women. How has the arrival of the Pill or Viagra changed the AV world?
I’m not old enough to have witnessed the arrival of the Pill pr Viagra so I wouldn’t know… Viagra came in 1998, the Pill in 1999? Those are the years I was watching Cardcaptor Sakura and Digimon Adventure. Sex wasn’t even my curiosity yet.
That aside, I’m sure both the Pill and Viagra have helped the actors push their physical boundaries. Whether it’s a good or bad thing, I’m not sure.
It’s funny how some of the icons of Japanese porn, from bukkake to “that pool” have become as famous around the world as One Piece and Dragon Ball. Are you surprised by this?
The fact that they’re from very mature content and non-Japanese viewers often complain about censorship, I’m purely flabbergasted that they’ve become widely known. Those are nothing like the famous meme of a school girl running to school in the morning with a slice of bread in her mouth.
Sometimes the sounds AV actresses make during sex can seem strange to Western ears, as if the girls are in pain or not enjoying the sex. How do you think Japanese viewers might interpret a certain AV performance compared with how people in other countries might?
Well, as you probably know, modesty is a virtue in Japan, and replying back with “no, I’m not” when someone tells you that you’re beautiful or smart is how we react to compliments here. Kind of like that, it’s considered normal to respond with overt shyness like saying “no, don’t touch me there!” during sex. When I shot a movie with actors from USA, the actors really thought they weren’t supposed to caress the area while they in fact needed to keep going with what they were doing.
Yes, in translating erotic visual novels the girl often says 嫌 iya, which literally means “hate” and ostensibly is denying that she wants her partner to do what he’s doing, but this is kind of a coy act that’s expected of females inside a Japanese context. It can be quite hard to translate though.
Is the on-set environment really as fun and friendly as behind-the-scenes footage suggests? We often see staff laughing together once a shoot is completed.
It depends on each shoot and team, but especially on an actress’s debut day, they act extra friendly or nice so that she won’t feel terrified and refuse to make the content. Also in my eyes, not just a director but other staff members are potential clients who will book me or talk about me in front of decision-makers, so of course I intentionally try to be funny by making jokes here and there to bring them smiles. I don’t know if either side’s intentions are genuine or merely being smart about business, but the on-set environment might seem cozy because of this laughter. That’s not too bad.
We often hear that there aren’t enough men working in the industry, and if we watch a dozen AVs, we’ll often see the same guys cycling through a lot. What kind of off-camera relationship do AV actresses have with these men? Do you go out for drinks informally?
Any male workers, mainly actors because they are usually freelance, aren’t supposed to date actresses, although there are a lot of married or casual couples in the same industry. Obviously they can understand each other about what they do for work, and they don’t have to lie about it. However as performers, men usually get paid less than women, because most of the time a female actor is the star of JAV and the reason why customers purchase videos.
Also, the male performers work fewer hours while girls need to show up for many photoshoots and some masturbation scenes as well. Hence, male performers have to appear on multiple shoots a day otherwise they cannot make a living. So if there are enough male performers in the industry, it’ll be harder for them to keep it as a full-time job.
AV is known for having interesting 企画 kikaku, creative concepts and situations, with bizarre titles. Who comes up with the titles for the movies?
Probably producers or directors? There is a trend of a long-self-explanatory title just like light novels. In this time with a tsunami of information, it is said customers would like to know the content before making a decision of purchase. It must be difficult to translate them all into English, though.
How are the “sex on a bus” AVs filmed?
Like a “molesting on a bus” theme, or the famous “Fan Thanks Day” series in which chosen fans get to enjoy a bus trip with popular actresses?
If the former, I had a shoot where they drove a bus around in public, hiding the sex scene with extras. Since groping happens when it’s crowded anyway, filming while driving on a public road in the middle of Tokyo was easy for such content.
The latter, however, is difficult to shoot anymore since the original series got canceled because of an indecent exposure case against one video filmed at a campsite. But they use to film “self-introduction with blowjob” part on highway, closing only the half side of curtains, for it’s against the traffic law to close all the curtains of a moving vehicle. The shoot made us actors all nervous, so I’m glad that type of non-acted thrill is over now.
Is “that pool” heated?
It is pretty warm, especially with sunshine coming from the huge window. But the studio is known to be very costly, so lately I haven’t seen any exclusive shoots there: always a group of actresses or gravure models with a fan meeting and photoshoot event to make up for the ridiculously expensive renting fee. Maybe we can organize something in the future, if enough people apply?
I looked it up once. The place is called Hanazono Room, and last time I checked it was US$900 for a 90-minute reservation, though it might have gone up since then. Maybe when COVID is done, we can all have some kind of offline event there!
Does Kaho Shibuya often get recognized in public? How is that?
I get asked the question a lot, but since I don’t wear anything to accentuate my body in my private time, not that much? I mean, I was asked to take photos together at Weekly Shonen Jump Exhibit and Tokyo Comic Con where I was just visiting as an attendee, so maybe more at events. Also, when I had my nails done, the nail stylist said she saw me on YouTube (I am hired by a Japanese company to host a channel “Omochan”)… I didn’t know how I should’ve felt about that!
Since I do many different things and some people know me but they don’t know my JAV past, I often wonder how they found out about me and what kind of image they have about me. So their explaining definitely helps. I don’t want to make them feel uncomfortable by assuming that they’ve seen my adult videos!
In a dinosaur battle, which would win, Pterodactyl or T-Rex?
T-Rex has to win as it’s known to be the strongest dinosaur. But if I was a fighting game player for such battle, I’d probably use Pterodactyl and dominates the air, flying around to mess with T-Rex and his short limbs.
Who is Kaho Shibuya’s favorite Pokemon?
Jigglypuff, for the cuteness. I think I have a thing for pink round creatures because there are too many Kirby plushies in my room.
Thanks to Kaho Shibuya for sharing such interesting information about the secret world of the JAV industry, and for being an awesome and fun person in general. Pick up her new photobook, which will be individually autographed by Kaho-chan with a personal message just for you!
Be sure to follow Kaho-chan on Twitter, Instagram and Twitch, too! The official Kaho Shibuya website is here.
J-List and Kaho Shibuya care about everyone’s health and safety and made some popular otaku masks for social distancing, which help keep all those Ria-juu normies from getting too close. Kaho Shibuya did a photoshoot promoting the masks here. You get one mask free with any order over $100 shipping out of Japan, or you can pick up the full set here!
